An audit is an evaluation of the validity and reliability of information. Individuals and organizations are entities that may be audited. A typical scenario for an audit in the United States is when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is the United States federal government agency in charge of collecting taxes, audits United States taxpayers. For many of the audits the IRS performs, they initially send an audit letter (i.e., a communication from the IRS) to the entity being audited.
The audit letters the IRS sends have varying appearances of form and content, depending on the type of audit the IRS is conducting and the information the IRS seeks. A taxpayer generally has little knowledge of IRS practices, and as such has a difficult time understanding the content and purpose of the letter. The conventional solution to this problem is for the taxpayer to seek outside support and this typically has meant that they must seek a one-on-one interaction with a person able to help. This type of one-on-one human assistance is costly in that it requires a person to assist every taxpayer who has been audited and is seeking help. If a company would like to provide audit support in this manner, they must hire individuals knowledgeable in the field and/or train people themselves. It takes time and money to scale up support operations and is costly to maintain the human capital necessary to provide one-on-one support.